Virginia’s Arlington County Detectives Learn about FGM

Virginia’s Arlington County Detectives Learn about FGM

Last Tuesday, March 5th Global Woman
P.E.A.C.E. Foundation (GWPF) continued its law enforcement training by
educating the Arlington County Police in Northern Virginia. GWPF began its education in female genital
mutilation (FGM) more than a year ago, when they launched their law enforcement
training with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Department in February 2018.

Fairfax County in the Commonwealth of Virginia was the
second recipient of this special training GWPF had compiled. The purpose of this program, Kids Reach
Shield was created to educate law enforcement in the Washington, D.C.
metropolitan area about the practice of FGM and its consequences. Additionally, it provides officers with
resources to support FGM victims and at-risk girls through the stages of
prevention, protection and prosecution.

The idea of training law enforcement in female genital
mutilation came to GWPF when they heard about an incident in Springfield,
Virginia in the spring of 2017. You
probably have heard this story before now, but it is the origin of the Kids
Reach Shield training program. Following
one of GWPF’s FGM presentations in 2017 at a church in Fairfax, one of the
attendees approached Angela Peabody of GWPF.
She said, “It is happening right here in Springfield, Virginia.” Peabody was astonished to hear the attendee’s
claim. The attendee explained that one
evening as she and her daughter stood before their Springfield townhome, they
witnessed a young girl running down their street. The girl shouted, “My father wants to cut off
my private parts” as she ran. The
presentation attendee said she immediately understood what the girl meant
because she had previously attended another presentation on FGM which GWPF had
given in 2014. What was even more
shocking was that the father raced after the girl with a large knife in his
hand. She and her daughter shielded the
girl from the father, who was determined to get to his daughter. He told them to get out of his way because it
was their culture, and he had the right to cut off his daughter’s genitals
because they practice it in his country of origin. They called the police but when the police
arrived, they had never heard of female genital mutilation. The attendee proceeded to educate the police
about FGM. Of course, the father was
arrested and taken away. When Peabody
shared that story with the GWPF’s Board of Directors they decided to help by
implementing a program to inform and educate law enforcement on FGM.

Last Tuesday’s training was the result of a successful
Kids Reach Shield program in 2018, the first year of their training. More than a year ago GWPF engaged their two
interns from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington
University to help research and compile a special training manual, exclusively
for law enforcement. The interns did an
excellent job with the assignment, and the result exemplified it. GWPF and the interns decided to write each
county in the Washington, D.C. metro area, and invite them to participate in
the Kids Reach Shield training program.
The first three counties to respond to the request for introduction and
training were Loudoun and Fairfax Counties in Northern Virginia, and Montgomery
County in Maryland. Fatu Drame, a
graduate student conducted extensive research, as she searched for an appropriate
model for training law enforcement on FGM.
When she was unable to find an actual model in the U.S., Drame expanded
her research to the College of Policing in the U.K. to gather relevant
information. The actual research took
approximately three months, and the writing and compilation took another 2.5
months to complete the twenty-page manual.
While Drame and her fellow intern, Christine Hedstrom selected images
and graphs for the manual, the manuscript was being fact checked and
edited. The finished product, Kids Reach Shield Program: A Law Enforcement
Female GenitalMutilation Training
Manual was then approved by the Board of Directors of GWPF, and sent to the
printer for publication.

The manual provides an introduction of Global Woman
P.E.A.C.E. Foundation, and an overview of FGM.
It includes detailed information on cultural aspects, proper language,
types, consequences, perpetrators, terminology, interviews, federal and state
laws, protection, prevention, prosecution, and answers to the whys, hows,
whats, whens, etc. There is also a
reference section in the manual.

It is pertinent that law enforcement officers have
knowledge about FGM in order for officers to identify the risk factors, to
identify occurrences, to confirm their suspicions, and to determine when to
take action. Through sound and effective
procedures, police officers can take action to safeguard potential victims,
investigate offenses, and bring justice to perpetrators. By emphasizing the importance of immediate
assistance to the victim and encouraging the use of proper procedures to
respectfully investigate, GWPF’s training manual provides guidance to the
various roles police officers can perform to encourage the cessation of FGM.

The visit to Arlington County, Virginia last Tuesday was quite different from the previous counties in 2018. There were only approximately seven detectives in the training room. The program began with the newest Board Member of GWPF, F.A. Cole who is also a survivor of FGM. F.A. shared her personal story, while including humor to help loosen the tension in the room. She shared a photo of where her excision actually took place in the mid-eighties. The discussion of FGM brings a serious aura to the room therefore Cole has a brilliant way of getting her audience to relax. Angela Peabody remarked how Cole was a tough act to follow, but she proceeded with her presentation, sharing an occasional actual story or scenario. While Peabody covered the cultural traditions, health risks, myths, religion, and the origin and history of FGM, a representative from an agency of the Department of Justice lectured on both the federal and state laws in the United States against the practice of FGM. The presentation was designed to be synchronized with the contents of the manual with references to where in the manual the detectives could find information. Copies of the manual were presented to Lt. Pilco for his Major Crimes Unit Squad. At the end of the class, GWPF handed out evaluation forms to the detectives for their feedback. GWPF reviews the feedback following each of the trainings, in order to determine how and where they can improve the Kids Reach Shield training. The Arlington County Detectives provided positive and encouraging feedback to last Tuesday’s training.

Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation thanks the Police
Department of Arlington County, especially Lt. Pilco for giving them the
opportunity to share with them their knowledge of FGM. The Cities of Alexandria, Falls Church and
Manassas, as well as the Counties of Prince George’s and Prince William are
still pending for training in the Washington, D.C. metro area. GWPF is committed to expanding the Kids Reach
Shield training to other metropolitan areas in the country, once they have
completed the Washington, D.C. metro.

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